


Shadowless

by MayContainBlueberries



Category: Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica - James A. Owen, Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, I posted this a couple years ago and took ti down but you know what, it's going back up again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-15
Updated: 2015-05-15
Packaged: 2018-10-06 10:22:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10332479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayContainBlueberries/pseuds/MayContainBlueberries
Summary: Well if having Jack be responsible for Nemo’s death wasn’t painful enough in canon, have it again in a crossover ‘verse!





	

**Author's Note:**

> A couple years ago I came up with a Pacific Rim/CotIG crossover 'verse which I still love the idea of and you can read a bit about [here](http://imaginariumgeographica.tumblr.com/post/118718625545/time-traveling-cellist). And I wrote a single heartbreaking fic set in it because 1. I am obsessed with Nemo and Jack's relationship and 2. They are totally drift compatible and 3. I do what I want. And anyway I'm putting it back up here because. It's not wholly terrible.

Jack awoke to the blaring of alarms and Nemo’s voice.

“We’re up Jacks. Let’s get going.”

Jack stumbled blearily out of bed, and trotted after Nemo, who was still talking.

“It’s a smallish category three, in the Chamenos Liber. We’re going in off the Cartographer’s island.”

Jack nodded faintly.

“Sleep well?” Nemo asked, grinning cheekily.

Jack rolled his eyes in answer.

Nemo wordlessly handed him a muffin, neatly sidestepping Houdini and Conan Doyle as they rushed passed, arguing.

It was not long before the Yellow Dragon was standing off the coast of the Cartographer’s island, moving its head as though sniffing the air. There had been no sign of the Kaiju yet, though in the dark and the lashing waves that was not surprising. They were staying near to the Keep of Time; the rest of the islands of the Chamenos were uninhabited, it made sense to stick close to the Cartographer’s lonely tower.

Jack let the moment wash over him, the familiar presence of Nemo’s mind, the breaking of great waves against the Jaeger’s giant torso.

“There,” Nemo said, but Jack had seen it too, the great head rising from the surf. Jack was reminded, as always, uncomfortably of Samaranth. But no, Samaranth was red, not navy, and Samaranth did not glow that eerie blue and Samaranth did not have...

“How many legs does this thing have!?” Nemo shouted as the Kaiju reared up higher and higher, legs sticking out all around its torso.

It looked like if you crossed a centipede with a turtle, stretched it a bit, and added some more legs just for good measure, and then bulked it up a bit.

“Cool,” Jack said. “Let’s do this thing.”

As the Yellow Dragon strode towards the Kaiju, it brought its many legs into itself, tensing. The Yellow Dragon landed the first hit on the Kaiju’s left side, but just barely.

“Holy cats!” Jack exclaimed as they were thrown backwards by the combined force of many legs punching out as though spring loaded.

John’s voice crackled though the headset, sounding distant. “You’re getting close to the Keep guys. Careful now.”

“ _Thank you_ ,” Jack said, exasperated. “I never would have thought to be _careful_.”

John sighed, staticky. “If you can dray it off, use your plasma canons but you are too close right now.”

The Kaiju pursued them, and the Yellow Dragon led it in a sideways dance away from the Keep. It didn’t seem keen on leaving the tower alone though, and soon the beast and the Jaeger were doing a kind of circle around the Cartographer’s Island.

“This is getting old,” Jack commented, grabbing a hold of two of the Kaiju’s flailing legs.

“You’re telling me,” Nemo said, ineffectually slicing though the legs Jack held for him. “Maybe we should get the Indigo Dragon out here.”

“We got this,” Jack said.

He felt Nemo’s mental shrug.

The circle they had been dancing around the Keep was becoming tighter. The Kaiju was missing about half its limbs, trailing Blue everywhere like snail slime, but it didn’t seem bothered by the greatly diminished state of its appendages.

“I’m gonna fire up the plasma cannons,” Jack said.

“We’re too close to the Keep,” Nemo argued.

“We can’t just keep hacking off its legs,” Jack shouted back, “this is doing _nothing_.”

“Jack, we’re too close, we’ll hit the Keep.”

“No, I’ve got this, trust me. If we hold back a little on the charge -”

“That’s too unpredictable!”

“Nemo, god, I’ve got this. Just trust me!”

The Kaiju roared. Nemo sighed. “Alright.”

Jack started up the plasma canons, fiddling a moment until he determined the charge was right. Nemo’s thoughts were loud in Jack’s head, a bit of doubt but overwhelming trust. Jack let loose a burst.

He was flying through the air, landing in the shallow water near the base of the Keep and his shoulder felt wrong but he did not care because

He was in the Jaeger, watching Jack be thrown by the blast and he knew it had gone wrong and the Yellow Dragon exploded into fire and shrapnel and

He was screaming, pushing himself up out of the water and ignoring the burning wreck of the Jaeger and the death throes of the Kaiju and

He was alone. Alone in his mind.

 

John found him as the sun rose crimson over the sea, glowing blue mixing with the burning red the sun painted the water. Jack was standing outside the last door before the Cartographer’s, staring at the frozen scene within. He had not stepped through the doorway.

The near past was preserved in silent tableau, Nemo standing arm slung around Jack. They were both beaming.

John laid a hand on Jack’s shoulder, and the younger man turned, clinging to him like a life raft, howling his pain and guilt.

At long last they stood apart, and John reached around Jack to close the door. As though it had been waiting, the Keep shuddered and grew, taking them further away from the past, into the future.

 

 


End file.
